. >> woodruff: dmitri simes you've been talking to people close to russian president vladimir putin. >> they would agree with what steve said. the situation on the ground is changing. the assad regime is losing. they're not yet at a point of collapse. but it's next to impossible to imagine how assad can win. nobody knows for sure whether assad will be able to stay away for months or weeks because if a regime like that collapses, it may happen very quickly. what the russians do not want to do is to be on the side of a tyrant and to be excluded from a future peaceful settlement. >> woodruff: this is a new posture on the part of the russians. is that fair to say? >> it is not entirely new. i think the russians were dealing to deal with syria for quite some time. i think that they were willing to have assad be in agreement with power as a part of the negotiated settlement for quite some time. what is changing is the pryings they would require, is the price the russian price? the situation on the ground is changing in the rebels' favor. >> woodruff: what does that mean? >> well, it means